The Citizens' Stipend Setting Commission met at the Merced Civic Center to continue reviewing the Mayor and City Council stipend and to finalize a written recommendation to the City Council. The commission approved prior meeting minutes, discussed current and proposed stipend amounts and budget impacts, and adopted Resolution 2026-19 recommending $1,000 per month for council members and $1,250 per month for the Mayor.
Note: The source agenda is dated Thursday, April 30, 2026, at 5:30 PM, while the meeting metadata supplied with this request gives the date as May 27, 2026, at 1:30 PM UTC. This summary uses the supplied date.
Okay, let's go ahead and get started. Okay, we'll call the meeting to order. Um, we'll do the go ahead and do the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. Jenkins? And Chair Kaikendal. Okay, I would like to remind the audience that if they wish to address the commission, they must submit a green request to speak form located at the podium in the back of the chamber. Citizens can submit public comment to the commission electronically no later than one PM on the day of the meeting. Comments received before the deadline will be sent to the commission and will be part of the record and be mentioned as part of the public comment portion of the agenda.gov and any correspondence received after one PM will be distributed to the commission and retained for the official record. Agenda item D, public comment. And we do have some members that are sitting in the audience. Does anyone want to speak? No, okay. No speakers. Agenda item E, consent. Uh E1, citizen stipend setting commission minutes for April 16th, 2026. Move to approve. Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Kelly and a second by Commissioner Jenkins. Um commissioners, please cast your votes. Okay, the motion passes unanimously. Okay. Agenda item F, public hearing F1 review and discussion of the current stipend for the mayor and city council members and discussion and recommendations, if any, regarding the appropriate stipend stipend for the mayor and city council members. Yes, I would like to kind of re-look at what we have proposed. I've asked Jennifer to put on a screen because I thought sometimes when we're talking about money, we don't realize how it affects. So you can see that the current is $51,600. But if we raise it, it's $87,000, which is an increase of $35,400. I was just hearing on the radio today what a couple things that were going to be affected. One is the fire department and 2027. And I can't imagine how many other things would be affected by that much of an increase, especially what has to be paid out if we pass this. Um that wasn't part of the budget, and then as they're looking at this budget now, what would have to be eliminated? And you never know how that might affect you. So I would like us to kind of relook at maybe the $700 a month or the $100 increase to each of them, and think that that's more of a realistic thing that we could the city could afford. Because we have to remember that this city is not um like a Fresno or even like a Turlock, we don't have the income coming in. And if we don't have enough money to cover that, um something's gonna lose out for clarification. I believe it's 500 a month. Do they get 500 a month, not 600, right? They do get 500 a month, and the mayor is a good thing. Okay, so then that takes 7200 off of they get 500. So that takes 7200 off that total. Um how much does the mayor get? $600 a month. Time six is $3,600 for the mayor, but the other council members, here's the current, the other council members get $500 a month. So the total council gets $36,000. Yes. Oh, sorry. That includes the mayor, correct? Uh okay. So let me just explain my spreadsheet. I just brought this as kind of my backup information in case you had questions, but um, since Belinda shared her calcs, I'll share mine. So currently the council receives um for six of them, $36,000, and the mayor receives $7200.